This invention involves an improved safety sheath for syringes.
The safety hazard to health care workers of accidentally wounding and inoculating themselves with a syringe needle has been recognized for some time. The danger has been well documented and was present when the needles were reusable devices that required sterilization. Mechanical devices and structures were provided to minimize the risk even with those now outmoded devices. Syringes are now disposable devices and are used only on a single patient. It is common to use the same disposable syringe for multiple injections within a short time. Recapping the syringe to protect it from contamination before this reuse poses a risk to the health care worker. Further, the risk to the health care worker also exists during disposal procedures. It is the generally accepted practice and it is required by hospital dictated regulations that the sheath be reapplied over the needle after use. This re-sheathing of the needle is intended to protect trash disposal persons during the handling of the discarded used syringes. A major risk to the health care worker is the process of re-applying the sheath to the used syringe. Since this syringe has been used, in most cases, to pierce a patient's skin it can be contaminated with various types of microbes present in the patient's body that can be a substantial hazard to the health care worker. Although concern for transmission of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus has recently gained substantial publicity, the risk of the health care worker being infected with the hepatitis virus and other microbes have posed a substantial risk for many years.
Various devices have been offered to reduce or possibly eliminate the risk, including devices that break off the needle, that allow the needle to be slid through a slot into the sheath, and more complicated mechanical devices which retract the needle or in other ways reduce the risk.
None of these devices have successfully eliminated the risk and in several cases have substantially increased the cost of the syringe and thus the health care services, many times requiring a more complicated procedure and more time by the health care worker. None of these devices have satisfied the needs described above nor attained the objects described hereinbelow.